Imagine a world where laziness, idleness and a sedentary lifestyle is rewarded. Imagine a world where those who consistently make poor decisions are paid for their failures. Imagine a world where the more irresponsible you are, the more you are rewarded. No, this isn’t the bizzaro world, this is America in the 21st century. In 1935, the US Congress gave birth to the modern American welfare state and while this entitlement panacea pales in comparison to the sloth obsessed socialistic models of western Europe, the premise remains the same…those who make poor decisions, those who choose to rest on their laurels, those who choose the path of least resistance are rewarded by the state through financial incentive.

For 70 years now, the US government has doled out welfare checks to deadbeats from sea to shining sea. Ten years ago, the government instituted “welfare reform,” which imposed a 5-year time limit for welfare recipients and introduced the novel concept of a work requirement (image people actually working to meat their financial needs), nonetheless many states have failed to meet these requirements and millions of people continue to suckle at the teat of welfare entitlement. There is no justifiable excuse for the institution of welfare…Society is not improved by rewarding the idle…society does not benefit when certain classes of people eek out a living at the expense of another. In America’s largest city, New York, officials report that the number of residents on welfare declined to the lowest level since 1964 (approximately 400,000).

According to the New York Times:

The decline in the caseload is occurring amid concerns about income inequality, which has risen more sharply in the city than in the nation as a whole, and new signs that poor families are having a harder time meeting housing and food costs. Last month, Mr. Bloomberg appointed a 32-member Commission for Economic Opportunity to come up with public and private solutions to poverty in the city.

The solution for New York’s poverty stricken is quite simple. If the cost of housing is too expensive, move to a region with a lower cost of living, stop having children you can’t afford to provide for and get off your high horse and take any job that is available, rather than looking upon certain jobs as being beneath you. Above all, these deadbeats should stress the importance of hard work and education to their children so as to break the cycle of poverty and ensure their children won’t repeat the same mistakes.

The fact remains that welfare is a reward for idleness, and the very existence of such a foolhardy measure gives rise to an entitlement mentality, whereby people feel it is the obligation of the state, and thus hard working American taxpayers, to finance their sedentary lifestyle. The best means to address the problem of poverty, the best form of welfare reform is abolition, introducing such people to the cold hard reality that to be successful in life one must work hard and develop skills to succeed.
Link to New York Times Article